Meet the Keepers!
Susan and Chris Harbourt
About Us:
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Thank you for coming to celebrate the restoration of the Portage River Lighthouse in Jacobsville, Michigan, with us. We love preserving and restoring historic properties and cannot wait to restore the Lighthouse to its former glory.
Chris and Susan, originally from New Jersey, met during their freshman year at Virginia Tech, where they studied Engineering. After graduating, they married and relocated for Chris to continue his studies and receive his PhD at the University of Illinois. During their marriage, they have always owned and revived historic homes that needed saving. Never afraid of a challenge, each move brought progressively larger and more daunting restoration projects, and with it came new skills.
While looking for a seasonal home for their family on Lake Superior, Chris and Susan wanted to find something that felt like a legacy property to restore, enjoy, and pass on to their kids. Unsurprisingly, when they saw the Portage River Lighthouse in Jacobsville, they immediately fell in love with the property and the idea of their next family challenge.
We have a lot of work in store, and I hope you will enjoy cheering us on. At this time, we expect to enjoy the property with friends and family and do not have plans to open a short-term rental. However, I do dream of hosting creative workshops and retreats at the Lighthouse when she's ready for day guests.
You can also visit my other passion projects at:
Susan Harbourt Creative
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Our Plans for the Lighthouse:
We have so many plans! Ultimately, it comes down to our motto:
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"Restore to honor the historical heritage and revitalize for a modern world."
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Some planned projects include updating all utilities, including burying the electric lines to provide you with a powerline-free photo opportunity, new roofs on all structures, restoring the tower, repairing all the brick hiding or missing under the wooden panels, removing the windows from a previous renovation and replacing them with historically appropriate double-hung windows, restoring the carriage shed, finishing the guesthouse to look as if it could have been an original structure, much-needed bank maintenance and stabilization, and creating a picture-perfect viewing location with signage on the history of the Portage River Lighthouse and its importance in the quarrying of Jacobsville Sandstone, an International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and UNESCO’s International Geoscience Programme (IGP) recognized Global Heritage Stone Resources (GHSR), the first in the United States.
Timeline of the Lighthouse:
1846 - 1851
February 17, 1853
March 3, 1853
July 17, 1854
February 17, 1853
1855 - 1856
1861
1868
March 3, 1869
1878 - 1888
1879
August 1882
1889
1903
August 15, 1891
1907
August 1, 1920
August 10, 1932
October 29, 194
Ransom Shelden built a store at the north side of the Portage River’s mouth on Keweenaw Bay to supply miners headed inland, brought his family to Portage Entry and became the first white settlers in the area, then moved inland and established a store, which was the first building in what is now known as Houghton.
Senator Alpheus Felch, former governor of Michigan, presented a petition to Congress from Ransom Shelden and others, “praying the erection of a light-house at the mouth of Portage River.”
The Committee of Commerce appropriated $5,000 for a lighthouse
A contract for the lighthouse was awarded to Alanson Sweet, Luzerne Ransom, and Morgan Shinn
Senator Alpheus Felch, former governor of Michigan, presented a petition to Congress from Ransom Shelden and others, “praying the erection of a light-house at the mouth of Portage River.” The petition was referred to the Committee of Commerce
A lighthouse on a fifty-seven-acre site just north of the river’s mouth was built and began operation.
George Craig discovered the sandstone near Portage Entry and established the settlement of Craig and a sandstone quarry.
An inspector found the buildings dilapidated and generated a list of issues.
Congress provided $12,000 for rebuilding the lighthouse
George Craig Portage River Lighthouse Keeper
A survey of the lighthouse reservation revealed that the station was located on private land
Funds were appropriated to buy the land surrounding the lighthouse was purchased the following spring for $700. Now that it owned the lighthouse property,
The government forced a county road and a couple of private buildings to be removed from its land
Corner and boundary stones were then set up to mark the limits of the reservation, and a barbed-wire fence was placed around the property
The period between the light’s red flashes was cut in half to one minute
a nine-foot-high and one-hundred-foot-long seawall was built just south of the lighthouse to retard erosion, and seventy-five concrete slabs, provided by the lighthouse depot in Detroit, were used to link the station’s various buildings with cement walks. A brick oil house was also added to the station in 1907.
major light was established atop an octagonal steel structure placed at the outer end of the breakwater at the mouth of Portage River. This new light replaced a wooden tower and was powerful enough that Portage River Lighthouse was no longer needed. Franklin W. Witz, the light’s last keeper, was transferred to the new light, known as Keweenaw Waterway Lighthouse, where he served as first assistant for over a decade
The discontinued Portage River Lighthouse was transferred to the State of Michigan
the state failed to follow through with its plans, the property reverted to the Coast Guard